Gov’t: Great Recession bit less weak than thought

Here’s a small consolation: The Great Recession wasn’t quite as horrendous as previously thought.

But it was still pretty horrendous: Updated government estimates from January 2009 through December 2011 show that the downturn remains by far the worst recession since the Great Depression.

And growth since the recession officially ended in June 2009 has been slightly less than previous estimates. Each year in July, the Commerce Department revises the previous three years of data on economic growth.

The changes show the economy shrank 4.7 percent from the start of the recession in December 2007 until it ended three years ago. That’s 0.4 percentage point less than the previous estimate of 5.1 percent.

The main reason for the revision: State and local governments spent more in 2009 than initially thought.